Prince Biography & News

Prince Details

About Prince

2014 has been charming for Prince

It's been a pretty good year so far for Prince.

Back on April 18, 2014 the musical icon released a brand new single entitled, "The Breakdown." The surprise was the cap on a whirlwind 24 hours in which Prince also announced a new studio album and a new partnership with Warner Bros. Records. How's that for crossing things off your daily to-do list?

In an interview with Arsenio Hall, Prince said "The Breakdown" is his current favorite song to play live. The power ballad that begins with echoing keyboard rides like a wave into Prince's falsetto, and is a string-orchestrated cut also punctuated by various sound effects. It is the first release following the announcement of Prince's reunion with his old record label.

As part of the new partnership (which will be a global licensing deal), Warner Bros. has agreed to release previously unheard material from Prince, as well as a digitally remastered, deluxe 30th anniversary edition to the 1984 soundtrack album, "Purple Rain."

And as for that brand new LP? "A brand-new studio album is on the way and both Warner Bros. Records and Eye are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working relationship," Prince said in a news release. It will be his 33rd studio album overall and first in four years.

Lately, Prince has been playing with an all-female trio called 3RDEYEGIRL. He occasionally posts YouTube videos of their music, and releases tracks through the group's website.

A pioneer of the Minneapolis Sound (Updated April 25, 2013)

He is a singer, composer, producer and pioneer of the Minneapolis Sound, which has influenced a generation of musicians. Known to many only as Prince, he was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958 and named after a jazz band in which his father was a pianist.

Prince developed an interest in music at an early age and signed to Warner Brothers records when he was just a teenager. He released his debut album, "For You," in 1978. Subsequent albums over the next four years included the self-titled "Prince," "Dirty Mind," "Controversy," and "1999." The later two created a buzz for mixing religious and overly sexual themes, and included elements of dance, funk, pop and rock.

A self-described perfectionist who writes, composes and produces most of his own music, Prince's popularity exploded when he released the album "Purple Rain" in 1984, which also served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name. Two more albums followed before Prince's band disbanded, and he recorded as a solo artist before debuting the "New Power Generation" band in 1991 and changing his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol he called "The Love Symbol."

Due to a label dispute with Warner Bros, Prince would release five records in two years before jumping to Arista Records in 1998. At the turn of the century he went back to referring to himself as "Prince." He has released 13 albums since then, including his latest, "20Ten."

Prince is well known for his on-stage persona and flamboyant costumes. He has toured endlessly since 1979-1980. "Welcome 2" is the common name of his 21st concert tour, which recently played over 80 shows in North America, Europe and Australia.

On January 23, 2013, a lyric video for Prince's new song "Screwdriver" was leaked online. In February, the website 3rdeyegirl.com was announced via YouTube, offering four new songs for online purchase.

Prince Discography

Album name

Release date

Extraloveable

2011

20Ten

2010

The 1994 Radio Promo DAT

2010

Abu Dhabi 20ten

2010

Lotusflow3r

2009

Sign "☮" the Times

2009

Planet Earth

2007

Hotel California

2006

3121

2006

Ultimate

2006

Fury

2006

S.S.T.

2005

Xpectation

2004

2004-02-15: The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, USA

2004

Musicology

2004

C-Note

2004

Xpectation

2004

The Chocolate Invasion

2004

One Nite Alone Live in Japan

2003

N.E.W.S.

2002

One Man Jam

2002

One Nite Alone...

2002

Days of Wild

2002

The Rainbow Children

2001

The Very Best of Prince

2001

12" Archive 2.0

2001

The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale

1999

1999

1999

1999 (The New Master)

1999

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

1999

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold

1999

Crystal Ball

1998

Villanova Park

1998

Come On

1998

The Truth

1997

The Holy River

1997

Emancipation

1996

Dinner With Delores

1996

Betcha by Golly Wow! / Right Back Here in My Arms

1996

Wonderboy

1996

Small Club

1996

Chaos and Disorder

1996

Now's the Time

1996

Gold

1995

The Gold Experience

1995

Purple Medley

1995

I Hate You

1995

1993-04-12: What's Hip: DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA, USA

1994

The Beautiful Experience

1994

Space

1994

Letitgo

1994

Come

1994

Black Album

1994

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

1994

The Jewel Box II

1993

Peach (disc 1)

1993

The Hits 1

1993

Letitgo

1993

The Hits/The B-Sides

1993

The Hits 2

1993

Outrageously Live!

1993

This Is My Night

1993

Oh Oh Ohhh

1993

The Undertaker

1993

Sexy MF

1992

Tokyo 1990

1991

Left Eye

1991

Cream

1991

Little Red Corvette

1990

Graffiti Bridge

1990

New Power Generation

1990

Thieves in the Temple

1990

Batman

1989

The Future

1989

The Scandalous Sex Suite (feat. Kim Basinger)

1989

Let's Go Crazy

1989

Batdance

1989

Scandalous Sex Suite

1989

1989-02-07: Nagoya, Japan

1989

Partyman

1989

The Arms of Orion

1989

Nightclubbing

1988

Trojan Horse Aftershow '88

1988

Lovesexy

1988

Live & Alive

1987

Miles 2 Nowhere (disc 1)

1987

U Got the Look

1987

If I Was Your Girlfriend

1987

Sign "☮" the Times

1987

1987-03-21: 4 Those of U on Valium

1987

Camille

1986

Birthday Parade

1986

1985-01-04: City Lights: Atlanta '85: The Omni, Atlanta, GA, USA

1985

Paisley Park

1985

Neon Rendezvous

1984

1999 / How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore

1982

Delirious / Horny Toad

1982

Let's Pretend We're Married / Irresistable Bitch

1982

1999

1982

Let's Work / Gotta Stop (Messin' About)

1981

Controversy

1981

Dirty Mind

1980

Studio Nights: The Rebels

1979

Prince

1979

For You

1978

Top 10 Prince Songs

Rank

Track Name

Play Count

Listener Count

1

When Doves Cry

83,775

37,641

2

Little Red Corvette

67,713

30,410

3

Purple Rain

71,182

28,910

4

1999

52,773

25,527

5

Kiss

61,090

25,020

6

I Would Die 4 U

40,466

17,821

7

I Wanna Be Your Lover

37,960

16,957

8

Let's Go Crazy

29,094

13,977

9

U Got The Look

23,109

11,886

10

Raspberry Beret

28,214

11,629

News

August 22, 2014

Best Guitarist 'O' Faces in Rock n' Roll

Urban Dictionary defines guitar face as: "The act of making an unusual face while playing the guitar. The look typically resembles a look of pain, intense ecstacy, or sometimes even plain old gas." And TBA defines O-face as--well, I guess you can check Urban Dictionary for that one yourself. But what happens when you combine guitar face…

Urban Dictionary defines guitar face as: "The act of making an unusual face while playing the guitar. The look typically resembles a look of pain, intense ecstacy, or sometimes even plain old gas." An…